Over the next few days, Mikey finds a number of post-it notes all over the place. The morning after Bob blew him a kiss, Mikey found one in the fridge. It read ‘you me @ 6’. Mikey wasn’t sure what exactly to make of it, so he just ignored it, like he did all the other notes.

Later that night, around 11:30, Bob approached him, shoved a post-it down his t-shirt, and then walked off. Mikey watched as he stuck a note onto Frank’s forehead as he walked past before looking down to read what Bob wrote to him. ‘ I do not appreciate being stood up Michael ;)’.

Mikey called out, but the drum tech didn’t turn around. He kept walking in the direction of his bands bus, ignoring Mikey’s calls. Mikey shrugged and tossed the paper into the closest garbage before walking in the direction of his own bus. If Bob didn’t want to just be upfront about it, then why should Mikey bother?’

It’s two days later and Mikey has had it. He wakes up only to find that his pillow has been stuffed with the stupid pink papers. He pulls out each one, laying them out in his bunk. Each post-it has a single letter, and Mikey wants to pull his hair out in frustration. How the fuck is he supposed to figure out what it’s supposed to say? He gathers the notes and climbs out of his bunk, heading into the front lounge. Sitting on the couch is Ray, and digging through the fridge is Gerard.

“Good morning, princess,” Ray greets, shoving a spoonful of cereal into his mouth. Mikey notices a note from Bob stuck to the side of his bowl. He doesn’t bother to find out what it says. He drops his own notes down onto the table before Ray.

“Help me decipher this.”

“How many are there?”

“Thirteen plus a question mark.”

“Shit… Okay, give me a few minutes.”

Mikey walks over to the fridge and shoves Gerard out of his way. The singer makes a grunt of annoyance, but allows Alex to have his way.

“What is this?” Mikey questions, spotting a note stuck to the carton of milk. He pulls it off and reads out loud, “Read this first – I know it’s early but…” He looks up at Ray, “What the hell?”

“Well, I’m assuming that it’s from Bob to you, meaning that you should read that post-it before putting together these,” He gestures at the many notes on the table. “It’s just a guess, though.” Ray continues to move the notes around the table, trying to put together words that make sense.

Mikey watches, putting his own input in every so often, until he finally comes up with something. “I think one word is valentine,” he says, blushing. “I’m not sure, though…”

“Yeah… I think you’re right.” Ray forms the word out on the table and looks at the remaining letters. “Um… Well that’s adorable.”

“What?” Mikey asks desperately, “What’s it say?!”

Ray moves the letters to their right position and Mikey reads the words formed.

‘Be my valentine?’

“Aww, Mike! That’s so cute!” Gerard reaches over and pinches Mikey’s cheeks. “You should go find him and respond!”

Mikey is sort of shocked, to say the least. Why the hell did Bob go through all of this trouble just to say that? He makes a quick decision. “Do we have any post-it notes?”

--

An hour later, Mikey has made a single post-it with one word written on it – his answer for Bob. He wanders around the venue – he’s pretty sure they’re somewhere in North Carolina – and finally finds The Used bus. He knocks on the door and a few seconds later, Burt answers.

“What do you want, whore?' Burt teases, holding the door open for Mikey.

Mikey doesn’t walk in, though. “Is Bob in there?” He asks, leaning to his left to see around Burt.

“Nah, he’s been walking around since we got here. Something about maybe buying more notepads, or some shit.”

“Oh… Okay then. I’m going to see if I can find him.”

“Remind him that we go on at 1 today, yeah?”

Mikey shrugs, knowing that that’s one of the last things that will be on his mind once he finds Bob. He walks past the merch area where bands are setting up their tents. He spots Matt yelling at some fans for some reason, and Mikey rolls his eyes. Matt is such a bitch sometimes.

Finally, after a good half an hour of searching, Mikey finds Bob hanging around the food tent. Sticking out of the other boys’ back pocket is a brand new pack of neon orange post-its. Mikey smiles. He taps Bob on the shoulder and when he turns around, he smiles as well.

“Hey, Mikey.”

It’s the first thing Bob has said to him out loud in the past week, and Mikey adores the way his voice sounds. But, instead of speaking out loud like Bob, Mikey simply holds up the mess of notes that Bob left him to decipher.

“So, did you figure out what I was trying to say?”

“I did, yeah… And I have an answer.” Mikey pulls the note he made earlier on the bus out of his pocket and holds it up for Bob to read.

Right in the center of the paper is the word ‘Absolutely’ in bold black letters. He takes it and sticks it on his chest, right over his heart. “As far as I’m concerned, it’s yours.”